Navigating Your Site
So you have created your site:
- John's Books, Cats & Trains Site
- index.html (main page)
- images directory
- images on main page
- books directory
- index.html (main books page)
- classics.html (first category of books)
- sf.html (second category of books)
- mystery.html (third category of books)
- clubs.html (fourth book page)
- images directory
- images on books pages
- cats directory
- index.html (main cats page)
- images directory
- images on cats page
- trains directory
- index.html (main trains page)
- images directory
- images on trains page
Now you want to be sure that no matter what page a visitor goes to, they can find their way back to where they started -- and on to other pages.
There are a number of ways to do this:
A home page link on every page, with the home page listing all pages on the site.
A site map that is linked from every page, and updated whenever you add a category.
A standard code block on each page, with links to all pages on the site.
Each of these methods can use a text link, or a graphic link. Graphic links can include image maps, a graphic which has separate areas coded to different links.
The navigation code block on every page makes it possible for a visitor to get from one page to another directly, but if you have a large and growing site it is a deep pain to update every single page when you add a page.
Most sites do not list every page on the main page. The main page lists the main sub-category pages; the main sub-pages list the detail pages in their area and link back to the main page; the detail pages link back to their category main page and, perhaps, to the site main page.
The site map lists every category and sub-category on your site. Sample
Exercise:
If you choose to do this as a workshop, write a site map for John's Books, Cats & Trains Site. Post it to webwriter@yahoogroups.com
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